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Account-based marketing (ABM) is a powerful strategy that focuses on personalised engagement with individual target accounts. It’s widely accepted as one of the most effective techniques for driving business growth and building meaningful relationships with key accounts.
Using direct mail as part of your ABM strategy is a great way to engage decision-makers who are inundated with emails and digital ads. If you’re not already doing it, here’s how to incorporate direct mail in your ABM.
What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?
ABM involves identifying and targeting high-value accounts, personalising communications and aligning marketing efforts with sales goals. The goal is to achieve maximum engagement and establish close business relationships.
Compared to other marketing strategies, ABM offers increased conversion rates, enhanced customer retention, improved lifetime value and stronger customer relationships. It is also widely thought to improve marketing ROI, as a more targeted approach reaches the most high-value audiences.
Harnessing Direct Mail for Effective ABM
Australia is seeing a renewed interest in direct mail as a marketing channel, mostly driven by its tangible nature. Businesses are achieving higher response rates when they cut through the digital clutter and connect with customers on a more personal level.
Direct mail and ABM go hand in hand as they both take a targeted approach to offering real value. Brands find it much easier to establish credibility with professional marketing that engages multiple senses.
Integrating Direct Mail with Digital Channels
For a seamless, omnichannel marketing strategy, you want to integrate digital strategies with those offline. Direct mail is a great way to send people to your digital channels because it plays on the novelty of receiving real, tangible mail. It also lets the receiver go online at their own time.
QR codes and Augmented Reality (AR) are great examples of how your direct mail marketing can send your accounts online. Including a QR code encourages recipients to visit your website, socials or other digital platforms, and AR is a fun mystery that people can’t resist uncovering.
Combining ABM and Direct Mail for B2B Success
To effectively convert and nurture your ABM customers, you need to define and implement your strategy. Effective ABM strategies often look something like this:
1. Identify Target Accounts
This is where most organisations will start. You first need to identify which accounts are ‘high value’ and therefore want to be prioritised. Consider factors like revenue potential, strategic importance and alignment with your ideal customer profile. You can collaborate with sales and marketing to keep your target accounts aligned with business goals.
2. Account Research and Profiling
Conduct in-depth research on your identified accounts. The goal of this step is to understand their needs, drivers and pain points. You also want to name the key decision-makers in the business. Tactical research includes using social media, online and speaking to contacts in the organisation.
3. Define Account-Specific Strategies
This is where you get into the personalisation – which is the basis for ABM’s success. Develop customised strategies for each target account you’ve identified. This involves deciding which messaging, content forms and channels will resonate with the account’s decision-makers.
4. Create Personalised Direct Mail Content
Once you have your strategy, you can start crafting direct mail marketing materials that speak directly to individuals. Tailor your messaging to resonate with the account’s industry, pain points and drivers. Examples of content are case studies, brochures and event invites.
5. Measure and Optimise
Continuously measure the effectiveness of your Direct Mail ABM strategy by tracking key engagement and conversion metrics like website traffic, calls, revenue and pipeline acceleration. Use ideas from the ‘integrate direct mail with digital channels’ section to work out how you can track offline-online interactions.
Active Mail: Complementing Your ABM Strategy
Partnering with a direct mail specialist like Active Mail makes it easy to integrate the benefits of offline marketing with your ABM strategy. Whatever stage of the ABM process you are in, we help plan, execute and analyse your direct mail campaigns.
Feel free to reach out to the team for a more personalised discussion on how we can support your ABM strategy.
